Kolymbia traffic plan causes chaos

Jeremy Gurst: May 2013

Bewildered holidaymakers on a visit to the holiday resort of Kolymbia on the Greek island of Rhodes are going round in circles. It's thanks to the one-way road system that was supposed to improve tourist traffic flows in and out of the holiday resort.

Now local traders have declared the scheme a disaster and called for the new road system to be scrapped before the main Rhodes tourist gets under way.

The Association of Shopkeepers in Kolymbia says the new system "did not improve in any way the movement of visitors, suppliers and residents but in contrast have created heated complaints about the chaotic situation."

They have been joined by hoteliers, taxi firms and bus owners who are bewildered at the road signs and traffic signals. Buses and cars repeatedly ignore the new signs while holiday visitors in rental cars cannot find their hotels.

They point to anomalies such as the case of two hotels, just 400 meters apart, which require a journey of more than 1km to get from one to the other if new road signs are followed.

And cars parked along narrow roads make it impossible for tourist coaches to pass each other while to get to some areas of the resort cars must circle the area several times.

Road maps showing the new one-way system contain a series of errors such as the mis-naming of roads and signals shown on maps which have never been installed.

Local campaigners have called for a meeting with the chief prosecutor of Rhodes to get the system lifted and the one-way system cancelled until a solution can be found.

In calling for a halt the local committee of hoteliers say they "consider these traffic arrangements excessive and ineffective" and denounce the municipal authority for the changes in traffic circulation around the holiday resort of Kolymbia Rhodes.